ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. on the Seahawks draft:
“I think what Pete Carroll did was he went with familiarity. He got guys that he recruited or coached against or he coached at USC when he get Anthony McCoy, he got LenDale White, several Pac-10 players. I thought he did a real good job overall of getting what he needed at a variety of positions and adding a couple veteran backs as well.”

Wide receiver Ronald Johnson said he will definitely have surgery on his wrist. He said the surgery’s been pushed back until USC completes finals. Johnson practiced Thursday but wore a yellow jersey, meaning no contact was allowed. He will not play in Saturday’s scrimmage.

Lane Kiffin sounded less certain about the status of linebacker Jordan Campbell, who is currently suspended.
“We’re still looking into the incident,” Kiffin said. “We’re told he didn’t do anything.”
Kiffin did not say what the alleged incident was.

Because special teams coach John Baxter does not believe in kicking during spring pratice, one under-the-radar training camp battle will be who replaces holder Garrett Green? Quarterback Mitch Mustain and wide receiver Robbie Boyer are among the candidates.

Tailback Dillon Baxter on the value of graduating high school early and playing in spring practice.
“If I had come in the fall, I’d be way lost. I’ve kind of put myself in the program and the coaches know me,” he said.

New NCAA president Mark Emmert spoke to Seattle radio station KJR about a college football playoff:
“The football playoff system is a creature of the university presidents that are out there – and that’s rightly so and that’s the way it remains. The NCAA, with me as president, my position will be to work with those presidents in any way that is useful to them. It’s not a topic that the NCAA is going to be driving.
“At the end of the day, it’s not for me to decide. It’s going to be up to the presidents. The role of the NCAA is to both be a leader and a servant.”

Pete Carroll talked to Colin Cowherd about why he selected Golden Tate:
“What I like about him is the guy’s a baller. We played against him, we saw him on all of his films for years, he just was a special football player on the field.
“He does not fit some of the profiles that you look for in a wide receiver. You’re looking for tall, lanky guys, or the speed burner if he’s a smaller guy. He’s got terrific speed, but he has way better play making ability than a lot of guys on the board.
“And he came through, he’s tough, he can return the ball, he ran out of the backfield, he ran the Wild Cat, all of those things combined make him a valuable player.
“Our really good players (at USC) were really battling just to keep him under wraps, and we weren’t able to do it all the time.”

Comments policy

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@langnews.com.